Chapter 174: Chapter 174: Specialty Hotel
KNOCK KNOCK—
Suddenly, there was a knock at the door, followed by Qin Shen’s deep voice. "It’s me."
A wave of relief washed over Jiang Si. She immediately opened the door and pulled him inside.
Jiang Si was about to speak when Qin Shen pulled her into a tight embrace.
Jiang Si froze for a moment, then hugged him back just as tightly.
After a moment, they both looked down at Bo Xi on the floor.
His face was contorted in pain, and the insects on his hands were twitching faintly, as if on the verge of death.
Qin Shen helped the man onto the bed, then pulled Jiang Si out of the room.
Jiang Si whispered, "Are we just going to leave him like that?"
Qin Shen nodded firmly. "We’re not getting involved."
"Alright."
’It wasn’t that she didn’t want to help Bo Xi, but she still hadn’t fully figured out her own abilities.’
"How do you feel? Are you uncomfortable anywhere? Why did you stay in your original form longer this time?"
Qin Shen said, "I’m fine, and nothing feels uncomfortable. As for being in my original form longer, maybe it’s just different each time."
He didn’t tell Jiang Si that some of his energy seemed to have vanished, afraid it would worry her.
But Jiang Si asked, "Didn’t you feel your abilities weaken or anything like that?"
’From her tone, it sounds like she knew before I did.’
Qin Shen nodded honestly. "A little."
Jiang Si quickly asked him, "Last time I had an episode, did you feel your energy decrease then, too?"
Qin Shen recalled, "Yes, but it came back."
Hearing this, Jiang Si confirmed her earlier suspicion.
’She was also relieved that Qin Shen could recover on his own.’
Qin Shen, in turn, asked perceptively, "Are you feeling unwell?"
Jiang Si smiled. "It seems your lost energy came to me. My space expanded by another square meter."
"But it seems I can only absorb it when we’re weak."
’Still, this is for the best. If I could absorb his energy just from a simple hug, Qin Shen probably couldn’t keep up with the drain, even if he could recover.’
Suddenly, Niu Niu ran over, interrupting their conversation. "Big Sister, Big Brother, the Vultures all flew away suddenly! But... it looks like there’s another insect swarm. Uncle said you should go take a look."
"Okay."
Jiang Si and Qin Shen rushed to the observation window, just in time to see the Vultures that had been circling overhead chasing after a wave-like swarm of insects.
Perhaps startled, the insect swarm, which had been heading in their direction, suddenly changed course.
The Vultures’ silhouettes grew more distant until they disappeared completely.
Everyone let out a long sigh of relief, but they were still afraid the insect swarm might return.
Jiang Si shook her head. "Don’t be afraid. Once they’ve passed through, they won’t come back."
The words had barely left her mouth when snowflakes began to drift down from the sky again.
Soon after, in just a few moments, the light snow turned heavy, and a strong wind kicked up, threatening to tear the whole world apart.
Jiang Si glanced at the outdoor survey meter. The temperature had plummeted to below minus fifty-five degrees.
’I had thought the extreme cold would end sooner than in my past life, but that was just a fleeting, wishful thought.’
The Icebreaker began to rock and tremble violently again.
The baby Vultures had somehow managed to pry open their cage and swarmed around Jiang Si’s feet, looking like a cluster of dusty, gray sesame balls.
Although the troop of monkeys was highly intelligent, they had been sensing danger for several days straight and were also extremely agitated.
Fearing the male monkeys might become aggressive, everyone had to lock them in a separate room from the young ones.
Jiang Linhai sighed. "This snow is never-ending."
WHOOSH—
The howling gale shrieked menacingly, and the floor beneath their feet swayed constantly.
Jiang Si was also nervous. ’If we disembark now, we might be able to take shelter in Zhang Aihua’s cave. But if we don’t, and the blizzard grows any stronger, the ship could be flipped over or even blown away.’
Just as she was hesitating, the snow, as if sentient, suddenly began to let up.
Everyone finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Jiang Si said quickly, "We should go find a cave and set it up first. That way, we’ll have a place to retreat to in case another blizzard hits."
Besides Zhang Aihua’s cave, there were other, smaller ones.
There weren’t many of them, so as long as a cave was suitable, they could always expand it slowly over time.
Jiang Linhai nodded. "Alright, Dad will go get things ready."
Niu Niu then asked, "Big Sister, are we abandoning our ship?"
She really liked their ship.
Big Black, Little Black, Number One, Number Two—everyone liked their ship.
Jiang Si also wanted to get the ship onto the shore, but it was clearly not feasible.
The ship was frozen to the ice. Even if they used leverage to try and get it ashore, it wouldn’t budge.
Besides, the Icebreaker was huge. What kind of crane would be big enough to lift it?
They would basically have to leave the ship here.
She had recently cleared out some room in her space, but there was no way to fit the ship inside.
Jiang Si found it a great pity as well.
Shen Baoying comforted her, "When the blizzard subsides, we can still come back and live on the ship. It doesn’t matter where we live, as long as we’re all together."
Niu Niu nodded. "Okay."
With the plan to find a cave set, everyone took the ice-plow and transport vehicles to clear a path through the snow, all the way to the cliff face.
Under the heavy snow, many of the caves were hidden from view.
Suddenly, Jiang Si spotted a hotel symbol on the map.
It was marked right on the cliff face.
Jiang Si suddenly remembered a unique hotel she had stayed at abroad with a team once, in a snow village. It had countless rooms carved right into a mountain hollow.
’Could this be one of those?’
Jiang Si grew excited. She pulled out a more detailed map and saw the hotel’s name: Beautiful Hot Spring Stone House. She immediately directed everyone to start digging toward the hotel’s likely location.
Everyone was confused. "There’s a cave here?"
The snow was piled thick, covering even the mountainside. Even if there was a hotel, it would be impossible to see.
Jiang Si nodded. "There’ll be a big surprise!"
Everyone worked hard, and by the afternoon, with the snow on both sides piled into small hills, they finally reached the stone wall.
Not seeing the expected entrance, Jiang Si was a little surprised, so she continued digging to the right.
This time, they were lucky. The right side was exactly where the entrance was, sealed by a thick wall of snow.
The outermost part was originally a glass door, but it was completely shattered. In the future, they would have to find a way to wall up the entrance, add two security doors, and a "hell lock."
When Jiang Linhai saw a corner of the hotel emerge, he covered his mouth in astonishment. "People used to live here?"
Jiang Si finally revealed the secret. "This was probably a unique hotel, a place for people to vacation, soak in hot springs, and get massages. We’re lucky to have uncovered it."
The hotel’s facilities and rooms were bound to be much better than a random cave they would have to slowly excavate themselves.
Everyone was thrilled and couldn’t wait to go inside and take a look.
Jiang Si said, "There might be bodies or other things inside. Qin Shen and I will go in first to check. You guys can come in after."
They always charged ahead into any danger. Lu Zhifeng shook his head. "I’ll go with you. It’s better to have someone to watch your back."
